port jervis, ny

if you've never heard of port jervis, it's ok, neither had i until i ended up there. it's about 90 miles outside of nyc and the intersection of ny, nj, and pa. it's a cute little town (population under 10,000) and i think budget travel named it one of the best small towns in 2008. i'm not sure if they were talking about the winter time :)

 but the town was cute, all 2.5 square miles of it (even w/ my bad directional sense we had the town memorized by day 1). in about 5 min you can end up in any of the 3 states and the only way i could tell which state i was in was if i was in jersey and i 1) couldn't buy beer at the gas station, and 2) they pumped my gas for me.

saturday night we went to the grill in matmaros, pa. it was disco night or something. i think the entire drinking age of that town was there that night but it was fun to people watch (the fog machine i could have lived w/o though). and it was only about 7 minutes max from port jervis. 

tri-state monument: impossible to find, no tourist signs direct you to it and you have to drive through a cemetery to see it. 

we ate lunch at the erie hotel restaurant, we were craving mexican but that wasn't happening. the building has been fully restored but still looks pretty cool. the food was so-so. tried my first mexican coffee, i'm not sure how i felt about it.

getting beer was kind of hilarious sunday night before the ravens vs patriots game (i won't rub it in too much, but ravens kicked ass!). we found out to the left of our hotel was nj so none of the gas stations sold beer and the liquor stores were closed so we were directed to ny where we circled quite a bit until we found a little convenience store.

ba-na-naaaaa!

i loved despicable me for the minions alone. and the fact that they were all in love with fruit, like me, didn't hurt either :D

so of course this is a banana update, if you didn't get that yet :)

first is M's bday cake-

Banana Sheet Cake (9 x 9)

Cake

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

2  large mashed bananas

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

Frosting

3 oz whipped cream frosting, room temp

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9x9 baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla and mashed bananas. Mix in half of the flour mixture, then the yogurt, then the other half of the flour mixture. Spread the batter evenly in the baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely brown and the surface springs back up when touched. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, mix all the ingredients together (electric mixer would be the easiest, but by hand is doable). Spread over the cake. Decorate with toasted pecans, optional.

*did half the simplyrecipes recipe but forgot to halve the egg and butter in the frosting, egg might have made the cake denser, and frosting turned out perfectly (not too sweet but a cream cheesy goodness)

second was a new banana bread recipe! who would have thought i would ever branch away from my usual recipe.

Banana Bread

adapted from joy the baker

makes 1 loaf

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulate sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

3 tsp canola oil

1 large egg, beaten

2 medium egg whites, beaten

3 large ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a loaf pan. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients from flour through the oats. In a smaller bowl, mash bananas and then add whole egg and oil until thoroughly mixed.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions. Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch about 45 minutes. 

let's do some honky tonky

just got back from nashville, tn last night after taking a look at Vandy (what the locals call Vanderbilt). here's the low-down on the city

(10.5 hours from Central MD to Nashville)

Itinerary

Day 1 (arrival)

·        arrived early in the morning, went to Hermitage Café (71 Hermitage Ave, 24 hours); food was so-so, but watching locals and getting entertained by staff is worth it. Got great recommendations on where to eat in town

·         explored Vandy

·         shopped at Pangea (eclectic mix of clothes, jewelry, postcards, etc. bohemian kind of fun)

·         lunch at Provence Breads & Café (1705 21^st Ave South) right by Vandy campus. We were still waiting for check-in time to start at our hotel (Knights Inn in East Nashville, ~$45/night for the two of us including taxes, breakfast and HBO). Got a picnic spread of their Tuscan bread (good, get their smaller loaf), mild cheddar, and their artichoke pesto spread (be warned, this stuff is garlicky, like kill vampires just by breathing)

·         walked to and around Centennial Park (2500 West End Ave) to see the Parthenon (to scale)

·         picked up Cuban food at Calypso café at Vandy location (2424 Elliston Pl)

o   got the beans and 3 option- w/ bean and corn salad, coleslaw and cornbread muffin w/ coconut (best part of the meal! Really tasty)

Day 2

·         morning spent at Vandy open house

·         lunch- provence leftovers

·         The Hermitage- Andrew Jackson’s home (4580 Rachel’s Ln); free day, tour house and grounds w/ museum

·         Lunch: Swett’s (2725 Clifton Ave) for southern food

o   Fried chicken very good

o   Baked cornbread good

o   Chess pie very sweet

o   Candied yams really sweet

o   Banana pudding good if you like bananas and the now-and-later kind of taste

·         To listen to live music, Commodore Grille (2613 West End Ave) in the Holiday Inn has singer-songwriter night Tues- (we got there at 8, perfect timing, try to find a table with a view); spinach and artichoke dip not that great, but drinks are a good deal; stayed through open mic

Day 3

·         Shopping

·         Lunch at PM (2017 Belmont Ave) (http://www.pmnashville.com/), which is asian inspired cuisine. Heard good things about the veggie burger from the guy who worked at pangea. We split:

o   coconut calamari w/ cucumber salad: very good, comes w/ a hot sauce and a sweet and sour sauce, the breading is nicely fried and crispy

o   veggie burger with a wasabi mayo and with sweet potato fries: the burger was marinated in a teriyaki kind of sauce, best veggie burger I’ve ever had

·         walked around downtown Nashville, The District and explored the state capitol building (free)

·         dinner: La Hacienda Taqueria (2615 Nolensville Rd); got the fish taco (not impressed at all), and a vegetarian combination platter (the rice was really good, beans were pretty good, chalupa and enchilada were so-so); didn’t get to take endless chips up to use; would not recommend except for the fact that it is cheap- so to make up for a kind of crummy dinner got mcflurrys at the mcdonalds down the road from the restaurant (it was icy and perfect)

Day 4 (departure day)

·         left around 4:30 am

·         stopped at a Cracker Barrel in TN (it was originally founded in TN!), everyone was really nice and friendly; split

o   Country Morning Breakfast- two eggs over easy (this is important, if you like your eggs like this of course), sawmill gravy and homemade buttermilk biscuits (dip your biscuit in the runny yolk, it cuts back a bit on the saltiness and is just plain delicious!)

o   Buttermilk pancakes with Montmorency cherry topping and whipped cream: don’t bother with the whipped cream, it’ll just get too melted from the warm pancakes and slide off, the cherry topping made the top pancake too sweet so see if they will put it on the side. The middle pancake (there were 3) actually tasted the best

molasses madness

did you know that if you boil molasses at least three times it is called blackstrap and loses all its sweetness? i mean the robust molasses i got from grandma's molasses was pretty darn unsweet (think burnt sugar, it was also the color of burnt sugar) but this stuff makes unbelievable ginger cookies w/ some spice fun. i'm having too much fun w this molasses stuff. and on wikipedia. haha. someone stop me!

gingerbread cookies are probably in my top 3 cookies (i think chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin round out my top three, although right now i'm on such a baking high i can't even think of another kind of cookie...oh boy, someone stop me)

but i used simply recipe's molasses spice recipe b/c after reading that i should chill the dough overnight for gingerbread men, i went for the more instantaneous gratification :). these babies don't look anything like simply recipe's version, no crackle, no poof, but my sisters called them "crack cookies" so i guess that was a ringing endorsement. good thing i had lots of coworkers to share the drug addiction with. the dough was very sticky and the cookies puddled out to be very thin (it was an all around vote that the cookies baked on the silpat were much nicer than those on the aluminum foil- more crisp but in a light airy way). these cookies are very delicious! gingery, buttery with a nice rich flavor which i'm thinking comes from the combination of all the spices with the molasses (nom nom). the only change i made to the recipe was using raw sugar in place of brown sugar (i still can't find my brown sugar from thanksgiving so i think i'm on strike for buying more until it shows itself). i also made these cookies much smaller to get about 4-5 dozen cookies. these cookies spread, so only put about 8 cookies per cookie sheet. bake about 5-6 minutes.

today, got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic right on my way home from work (i'm hoping this wasn't remnants from new year's eve fun and people forgot how to drive) but i passed 3 accidents. so de-stressing meant thinking about cookies to bake- aka, tool around with the cookie recipe to make it healthier and also more cakey (i like my cookies crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside!)

for the 2nd version i took out an entire stick of butter, 1/4 c of the sugar (the raw sugar), and put in two large spoonfuls of plain yogurt. the dough still came out incredibly wet and i had an even harder time rolling it in sugar (it was more a ploop into the sugar bowl then covering it in sugar and balling it up and shaking off as much sugar as possible). but these cookies were much poofier and cakier. also, less greasy. which i appreciated. these need to bake a bit longer to get the crisp on the outside, about 7-8 minutes is perfect texture in my opinion. 

in case you didn't get enough molasses in your life, i got one more goodie for you- spice molasses pumpkin bread adapted from circle b kitchen who adapted it from bon appetit. i made quite a few changes (out of pure laziness of not wanting to get more ingredients and nutritional preferences). plus, i only made 1 loaf.

Spiced Molasses Pumpkin Bread (1 loaf)

1/4 c white sugar

1/4 c plain yogurt

1/4 c robust molasses (I used Grandma's Molasses)

1 large egg

10 oz pumpkin puree

1.5 c flour

1/2 tsp group allspice

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c raisins

1/2 c toasted walnuts, chopped

sprinkle of raw sugar, optional but recommended

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter one loaf pan.

Mix the sugar, yogurt, pumpkin and molasses in a large bowl to blend. Mix in the egg.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, spices, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture in two additions. Mix in the walnuts and raisins.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan, sprinkle with raw sugar and bake 40-50 minutes.

since i took out all the fat from the recipe the sprinkled sugar on top helps to give the bread some crust. this bread is delish- moist from the pumpkin and raisins and the toasted walnuts fit perfectly with it. eummm, too bad i'm not as productive about the rest of my life when i get stuck in traffic. happy baking :) i really need to stop baking late at night so you can see the actual yummy color of the food!

dessert overload!

oh wow, it's been a while since i've been here, but the semester is finally over (phew, scrapped by with no sleep and chugging honey tea w/ a splash of lemon. it really works!). but here's a recap of the last 2.5 weeks, and can't really talk about life w/o the sweet stuff right?

goodies from top left clockwise: stollen, maple cookies, biscoff cookies, biscoff scones, and oatmeal and dried cherry cookies

baking is my chance to work out my stress and get away from thinking about school or applications or whatever and just focus on a recipe and making something yummy. so as strange as the quote may seem at first i'm working on trying to notice Now.

but onto tastier things- recipes

• stollen is a German fruit cake (don't think the ones you see in the grocery store) filled with dried fruit (such as cherries like mine) and topped with powdered sugar. it's often made during the Christmas season so i was pretty much on target. one of the volunteers at my museum is the sweetest German lady ever and she's forever trying to feed me and take care of me, so i wanted to bake her something nice. this recipe doesn't actually include the yeast/rising/dough part, which makes it good for those under a time constraint. when i'm a bit sleep deprived i tend to forget things so mine was missing the egg (whoops!) but it was still very tasty. the bread was denser than the stollen the volunteer has fed me, but still really good. maybe i'll give fruit cake a try...haha
• maple cookies: these cookies and the dried cherry oatmeal ones occurred during frantic studying for advanced human nutrition (i used a whole pack of looseleaf paper by the end!). i used grade B (from VT). i had to change the sugar b/c the brown sugar i bought for thanksgiving had mysteriously disappeared...haha. but i had 1/2 c cane sugar as my sugar and got about 3 dozen small cookies (bite sized treats). i wish these cookies were a bit more cookie-like and less cake-like.
• biscoff cookies: biscoff spread is amazinggggg. it's funny how i don't really like sweets or desserts wtih caramel in them (b&j's caramel sutra comes to mind), but the caramel of this spread is rich and creamy (sugar and butter will do that:). there's tons of biscoff cookie recipes, and now i can't find the one i used, but our recipe called for them to be rolled in sugar before baking which i think tops the yum factor.
• biscoff scones: had the jar lying around so might as well put it to good use (although taking a spoon to the jar also sounded like a pretty good idea!). we left the glaze off b/c they were going to get transported to CT and scones always taste better warm so figured the glaze would just melt in funny ways when reheated. i would suggest making two smaller 4" wheels and then cutting b/c as one wheel these scones are way to big for one person to eat a wedge! but the biscoff flavor comes out really well in these scones. perfect with a cup of coffee.
• oatmeal and dried cherry cookies: once again, no brown sugar so for the sugar i used 1/2 c granulated sugar and 1/4 c cane sugar, but i'm sure using the regular sugars called for is fine (i also like my cookies a little less sweet, esp since my dried cherries were sweetened). these cookies are great buttery and crisp in texture. it also has a great sweet/tart flavor. 

happy baking! off to new england for a week or so. happy holidays and hopefully the world doesn't end on the 21st so i can keep baking.

bfast- really fast :)

quick and dirty breakfast egg cup-

all night trying to sleep and all i could think of was making this...clearly i tend to hyperfocus on the randomest things. so when my alarm went off at 6 this morning i got dressed for work and went about preparing this quick, healthy and oh so easy to fiddle with breakfast egg cups

Egg Cups
Makes 5

3 eggs, beaten
1/2 c broccoli, small florets (mine were frozen so i zapped them for a minute in the microwave)
1/2 c black beans (precooked)
dash of spices you like (i used black pepper, garlic and oregano)
optional additions- chopped up ham, pine nuts, other veggies, sun dried tomatoes, shredded cheese, etc. go crazy.

Combine all the ingredients and pour into a well greased (or sprayed) muffin tin. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the edges are a golden brown.

On top of those additional items, you can always make each egg cup specific to a persons requests by adding in more ingredients to individual cups once they are all scooped out and before going into the oven.

This all took from start to finish about 30 minutes, so totally do able. I'm going to try it w/ some salsa for lunch today. happy eating!

thanksgiving recap

woo, as wonderful as thanksgiving is, i'm thankful it only happens once a year. although i suppose since leftovers drag out for a bit, it's not really one day. but most of the dishes i care about disappear within the first day, so i'm sort of in luck (now if someone could magic the pies out of my house, that would be great!)

the menu for the day. my foodservice class theme meal project seems to have rubbed off onto me. it was all new recipes again this year and i've modified most if not all the recipes to be healthier. the biscuits did not make an appearance (we were feeling unmotivated) and the spinach and artichoke dip didn't get a photo op b/c i was too lazy before it got devoured:)

from top left corner clockwish: rosemary and butter turkey, focaccia stuffing, focaccia stuffing base, apple pie and mississippi sweet potato pie, roasted lemon brussels sprouts, smashed potatoes. we also had a mushroom gravy (that stuff gets better and better everytime). recipes at the end!

the veg's plate (w/o the gravy yet)!


Recipes:

Spinach & Artichoke Dip with baked corn chips modified from here
Makes 5 cups

1 10oz pkgs frozen spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
2 14-oz cans artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 c shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
8 oz light cream cheese, softened and cut in ½” cubes
½ c cannelini beans, pureed
1 c greek yogurt
¼ c grated Parmesan
4 cloves garlic, minced (1 T)
½ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp salt

1 pkg small Corn Tortilla wraps

Chips can be made a day to a few days ahead. Cut the tortillas into eighths and lay out on lined baking sheet. Bake in 350 for about 7 minutes. Flip or toss the wedges and bake for another 7 or until golden brown (the wedges will curl up). Let cool and keep in air tight container.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set aside half the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. In a large mixing bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients. Spoon mixture into a greased or sprayed 1- ½ to 2 qt baking dish. Sprinkle top w/ remaining cheeses. Bake uncovered for 25-40 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

Smashed Potatoes

serves 8

15 small red potatoes, washed, de-eyed, chopped into even pieces, boiled, water removed and mashed

3 wedges laughing cow garlic cheese

1/2 cauliflower head, microwaved about 5 minutes and pureed

1/2 can cannelini beans, pureed

3/4 c chopped kale

garlic

milk

salt and pepper
Make sure the potatoes are completely mashed, while still warm add other ingredients and spices to taste.

Roasted lemon Brussels sprouts

serves 6

2 lbs Brussels sprouts, washed and quartered

olive oil

garlic, minced

salt and pepper

Canola oil

lemon

Toss Brussels sprouts in all ingredients except lemon and spread out in large baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Spray with canola oil (or olive oil. Bake in 350F for 10 minutes. Remove, toss and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with half lemon juice and toss. Serve immediately.

Focaccia Stuffing from here
serves 5
½ loaf focaccia bread, cubed
2 T pine nuts
1 ½ T olive oil
½ small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 dried sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
½ c marinated artichoke hearts, chopped 1 ½ T chopped fresh basil 1 c vegetable stock ½ tsp salt ½ tsp black pepper
Preheat oven to 375 F. Place cubed bread in a large bowl and set aside.
In a dry skillet, toast pine nuts over medium heat until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add the nuts to the bread cubes.

Heat 2 T of oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute for 5 min. Add garlic and cook for an additional 5 min, stirring often. To the bread bowl, add the onions and garlic, along with the sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, basil, stock, salt, and pepper. Stir until combined well.

*The day before I combined the sauteed onions, garlic, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, salt and pepper and kept it refrigerated. I also toasted the pine nuts in advance so that way on Thanksgiving day all that needed to be done was cubing the bread and tossing everything in basil and stock.
Oil a 3-quart casserole dish and spoon the stuffing into the dish. Spray the stuffing with canola oil. Bake, uncovered for about 20 minutes. Broil for a few minutes until golden.

Mississippi Sweet Potato Pie modified from here makes 1 pie
4 oz (1 stick) butter, softened, could probably use less of this 2 c baked and mashed Korean sweet potatoes 1/4 c brown sugar 1 5-oz can evaporated milk 3 eggs, beaten 1 tsp cinnamon 1 pie shells, unbaked
Mix butter, potatoes, sugar, and evaporated milk until well blended. Add eggs, and cinnamon; mix well. Pour into the prepared pie shells. Bake in a 350 oven for about 75, until set.